The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread

[smeagolsfree]

I would think that they wiil have inbound trains run in the morning and outbound in the afternoon. They will probably not have very much choice as far as a lot of times and stops. I really do not think the people will use the system very much with the prices they are going to charge. I hope I am wrong but I dont think this thing will make any money but will cost alot more than they take in. Metro will have to give incintives for people to ride and the people around here love their cars.

[Nashvillain]

What do people do when they arrive in downtown? How do they get to their jobs from the train station? Bus?

[it's just dave]

There's a shuttle plan in place for the arrival times. Each rider under a certain plan will have so many days with transportation home in the event they miss the train due of overtime working or other schedule conflicts.

[showtime21]

i thank it would be better if that would have made it two tracks. They should have trains running both ways all day. Whats going to happen to the sick person who gets off of work early.

[Rural King]

This whole service is an experiment. Its not really meant to be a full service operation with lots of times and stops. Its basically an attempt to get a basic system started and go from there, and basically see/learn how well it will/could work bit by bit. The system will hopefully, if support is maintained, get better and better over time. Its just to big a risk and investment to try to do too much at once. Small steps, small steps.

[it's just dave]

I agree, let's not spend hundreds of millions of dollars just quite yet. This is an automobile society and will always be. So let's not throw money into the wind until we know the acceptance rate. This will take time.

If somebody gets sick, somebody will take them home. There's lots of compassionate people around here. I know someone would take me home if needed. Don't worry satalac, time will tell.

[sleepy]

I agree, let's not spend hundreds of millions of dollars just quite yet. This is an automobile society and will always be. So let's not throw money into the wind until we know the acceptance rate. This will take time.

If somebody gets sick, somebody will take them home. There's lots of compassionate people around here. I know someone would take me home if needed. Don't worry satalac, time will tell.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Right.

There's that old saying--don't let the perfect kill the good.

[showtime21]

i understand were u are coming from dave. Will they build a second track for the east leg of the music city star.

[Rural King]

The whole point of the current line is that it uses existing rail-lines out to Lebanon, which cuts down on costs alot. They aren't going to go build another twin line for what is basically a pilot project. If the pilot line does even remotely decent on the limited schedule offered, then the chances on the system may be expanded and/or improved to some degree.

[BnaBreaker]

Yes, its true, the east corridor STAR line will have 4 trains in during the morning (approximately 1 hour apart) and 4 trains out during the evening. Nothing more, nothing less.

This line does nothing for urban development and revitalization in central Davidson county and its going to end up being a big flop because of the local suburban anti-transit zealots who will use this failure as an example to stop any future transit projects in metropolitan Nashville.

Why would such of a pro-rail and pro-urban person such as me say this? Because I want something that works and will change the urban fabric, and revitalize. You can't afford to gamble too much with a population like we have here in Nashville.

I would rather have them spend $40 million on road improvements with bus lanes and landscaping in the central city's main corridors and start frequent bus service with modern rail-like bus cars that come every 10 minutes all day then this.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know i'm jumping into this late, but I have to agree completely with what heckles said above. While I am, on the one hand, excited about the prospect of alternative modes of transportation in the Nashville area, I am dissapointed that they decided to serve the suburbs first before upgrading the transit for the central city which is required for quality urban development AND also to make commuter rail work properly. People have to have an effecient way to continue their journey once they get off the train downtown afterall.

These commuter lines will take MAYBE a couple hundred cars off the highways, which will likely, at least in a place like suburban Nashville, just be replaced with other cars. That is of course assuming that sububanites of Nashville will even latch onto the idea of commuting via rail into work. It is a pretty big gamble, and like heckles said, in an area like this, if this project fails then all the anti-transit/anti-spend-any-money-to-help-make-the-city-a-better-place-people (Also known as ASAMTHMTCABP ) will use its failure as a reason to quit investing in future transit projects.

Why not invest in a small light rail system, or a much improved bus system for the inner city people who would no doubt ACTUALLY USE the system in an area that desparately needs it instead of investing in a shaky gamble for people that have mixed feelings at best about riding a train that will do little to improve the areas it serves?

If someone has responded to these thoughts earlier in the thread, I apologize. I didn't read pages 4-7.

[Nashvillain]

If you believe all the doom and gloom about the continuing rising price of oil, people may not have a choice. We're just taking baby steps here, but at least our government is doing that much.

[cheeriokid61]

I'm sure we will start to see less cars on the highway and more cars in the HOV lane. My parents, I know, now carpool with their friends, taking three cars off the highway, and will use commuter rail once it opens down here. I saw gas stations selling gas for $2.45. It is estimated that each car will use about $2,400 of gas this year. Many people will not be able to afford that. I believe that this commuter rail will be a bigger success than you guys think. Gas could easily hit $2.90 to $3 plus by the end of this year. It is ridiculous, but we can't stop it. We have no choice but to go along with it.

I had my speech. Sorry if I kinda lost it. I'm done now. Thanks.

[showtime21]

I agree with cheerio about the gas price and we have to take baby steps but i feel that all those condo going up down west end and midtown in general. We will see a light rail system because Nashville is growing right before are eyes.

[it's just dave]

According to my neighborhood gas station manager, he expects to be putting up a "3" before the end of the week. He said to expect $3.10 for regular by Friday...he seemed serious, but who knows. I filled up both cars anyway to save a few bucks. Today, I'm trying to recruit and additional person for my carpool. That's about all I can do.

I hope the gas station was wrong. Of course, adjusted for inflation, this will be about the same as the price of gas in 1980 when it hit its record highs then. It still just stinks.

[eusebius]

The gas situation has prompted 2 of my co-workers to ask me about MTA just this week. I'm routinely ribbed here at the office as the only guy who takes the bus to/from work. All my proselytizing about the social & environmental benefits of mass transit have fallen on deaf ears...until now. Once it starts to affect one's pocketbook, things change. I've noticed a few more "newbies" catching the bus, too... Dave - glad to hear you're carpooling!

[cheeriokid61]

My mom's works with the investments branch of AmSouth, and one of her clients distributes gas. I'll tell you what she says about gas prices.

[Dale]

I think Nashville's doing it right, baby steos and all that. We here in Central Florida are closer than we've ever been to getting commuter rail. The 61 mile starter line is but a drop in the bucket. It constitutes a modest start. A catalyst, we hope.

[Rural King]

I just read in the Jackson Sun (which used a Tennessean/AP article) that federal matching funds for the Nashville commuter rail system may be diverted to help cover the costs associated with Hurricane Katrina. The first leg of the system was to open in January and link Nashville with Lebanon. Senate Transportation Chairman Mark Norris (R-Collierville) stated in the article that he thought the money scheduled for that segment will come through do to the amount of investment already put into the project.

He went on to say:

"The commuter rail project has been on somewhat of a fast track and has gotten a lot of support from congressional members from Middle Tennessee," Norris said. "There are hundreds of billions of dollars worth of projects nationwide that could be targeted, but it's too soon to say that that $6.2 million might be sacrificed."

Here is a link to the article:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TN_...EMPLATE=DEFAULT

I looked on the Tennessean site and couldn't find the article cited in the Jackson Sun (the offered link just sent me to the frontpage) , anybody read this and know what section it was under?

Edited September 27, 2005 by Rural King

[it's just dave]

I don't see how you missed it. I was dead center front page today. Actually, it wasn't in the list of headlines, but a clickable photo to the right of the headline section.

Here ya go.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...EWS09/509270339

The article gives a positive spin on the outcome, imo.

[Rural King]

LOL Yep. Dead center of the frontpage. I guess I don't pay much mind to the photos anymore and just read the taglines for articles to read. Now I suppose I will need to check out those photos as well.

[rosen108]

Just in case anyone didn't notice the front page article:

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl...EWS09/510190418

Not good news

[Kyle]

Just in case anyone didn't notice the front page article:

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl...EWS09/510190418

Not good news

Uh oh. Let's hope that the bank says something good today.

[Rural King]

Nothing to get worked up about yet. We have a strong congressional delegation that should be able to give us a fighting change to retain federal support of the project. This may prove to be a delay though.

[Boisefan]

The Funding was approved!

Tennessean

[Rural King]

Great news. It helps when the state has a strong delegation, which we luckily do.